Sony Ericsson Xperia active, as the name suggest, is a smartphone for those with active lifestyle. The Xperia active is a scratch resistant, dust proof and water resistant phone running Android Gingerbread 2.3. Not only is it water resistant, it also have this unique wet finger tracking which allows you to use the capacitive touchscreen even when the screen is wet.

But do note that it is water resistant, not water proof. So don’t go swimming with the phone. According to Sony Ericsson, the Xperia active can be kept under 1m of water for 30 minutes.

The Xperia active also have ANT+ wireless networking technology which allows it to communicate with devices like heart rate belts. There is a iMapMyFitness app that helps monitor day to day performance. You can also brag about your performance using Facebook inside Xperia app.

The Xperia active also comes with a whole suite of accessories. One extra exchangeable soft touch back cover, detachable ear hooks for the portable handsfree active headset, wrist strap and an arm case.

The Xperia active will be available in Q3 2011. No pricing available yet.

ICANN has approved the plans for Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD). This means that we will be seeing vanity Top Level Domains like .hotel, .sport or even brands like .canon or .coke.

For the uninitiated, Top Level Domain is the last portion of the URL (Example: .com, .edu, .gov, .sg). Starting from late 2012, we will be seeing companies and organisations registering Top Level Domain of their choice. Canon is one of the first few companies that have express interest in creating their own gTLD. Which means we might see URL like http://ixus.canon or http://printers.canon.

Luckily for everyone, we most likely won’t see any Top Level Domain name squatting when gTLD registration begins. This is because registering a gTLD is not as cheap and easy as registering a .com domain. The application fee alone is $185,000 and it cost $25,000 per year to operate.

But for those interested, ICANN will start accepting registration from 12 January to 12 April 2012.

Huawei unveiled it’s MediaPad at CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore. The Huawei MediaPad is the world’s first 7-inch Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet. There is no typo. It is really Android 3.2 Honeycomb.

So what exactly is the difference between Android 3.1 and Android 3.2? Well, according to Huawei, Android 3.2 is designed for 7-inch tablets. We don’t have a working prototype running Android 3.2 yet. Even the demo units at CommunicAsia are running 3.1. So let’s wait and see if there’s any major difference between the 2 version.

The biggest problem with Bluetooth accessories is the pairing process. I think most people are still confused whenever the device ask for a passkey.

Nokia came up with a very elegant/easy/dummy proof solution on their Nokia Play 360 Bluetooth speaker. To pair the speaker with your Nokia N9, simply place your Nokia N9 (or any device with NFC) on top of the speaker for a few seconds and the Near Field Communications (NFC) chip will help you do the pairing. Once pairing is done, music is transfer from the phone to the speaker using Bluetooth as per normal.

I must say that this is a very elegant solution to the complicated Bluetooth pairing issue. Good use of the NFC.

The Nokia Play 360 has built in battery that can last up to 21 hours. It uses a MicroUSB port to charge. You can pair 2 Nokia Play 360 together to create a stereo speaker. If you don’t have NFC, you can still connect to the Nokia Play 360 speaker using normal Bluetooth pairing or with a 3.5mm audio jack. But come on, it’s so much cooler pairing the speaker using NFC.

No release date or pricing yet. But I’m pretty sure we will see more devices using NFC to do Bluetooth pairing after this.